How Clean are Your Shoes?

How clean are your shoes?

As a missionary you stand out. That’s just how it works. We do what we can to blend into the culture we are serving but oftentimes there are things that get past us. Things that got past me.

Things like clean shoes.

I am not very fashionable, there I said it. Clothes are more function than fashion for me. And that goes for shoes, too. So when I mentioned I needed to go buy new tennis shoes I was told, kindly, that was a good thing because mine were dirty and I was making the Church look bad. I had no idea shoes meant so much.

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I was invited to take a look at some shoes, and I did. Over the next few weeks I paid attention to footwear. There were all kinds. Sure tennis shoes, but also sandals, those famous chanclas, high heels, loafers, work boots, you name it and I saw it. The only thing they all had in common is they were clean. I had the dirtiest shoes in my neighborhood.

I did buy a new pair of tennis shoes and I kept them clean. I also went home and spent an evening researching how to clean shoes and another evening cleaning all my shoes. When I could no longer make them look like they were brand new, I knew it was time to buy a new pair.

Shoes seem like a small thing but I was representing Christ. Even when I did not speak directly with people they still knew I was a missionary. Word spreads fast of a big white girl helping out. Representing Christ in the field is a 24×7 thing, shoes included.

I believe other cultures have their unspoken traditions too. For example I have heard:

  • Mongolia, if you own a car, it is cleaned each night when you get home. You have a car, it’s clean,

  • Norway, if you don’t know the person sitting next to you on the bus already you do not strike up a conversation,

  • Uganda, if you need a car and your neighbor isn’t using his, you just go take it,

  • Nebraska, if you are driving down the highway you wave at people. I don’t know why, it’s just done;

  • And in Ciudad Juarez, if you are at all able, you have on clean shoes.

What about where you live, is there something done that would make other people wonder?

How Clean are Your Shoes?